March 6: San Juan County Council Special Meeting will start late due to cancelled ferry
SJC Council March 6 Special Meeting will start at 9:30 a.m. due to the inter island ferry being cancelled.
Join the meeting for public access: Sign up here to make a public comment before 9 am the day of the meeting Call in at 9 am for public access – 360-726-3293 +1 360-726-3293,,891968338# United States, Seattle Phone Conference ID: 891 968 338#
How Other Counties Handle Legislative Session Communications
Skagit (Lisa Janicki):
1. Do you use a point person to interact with your LD Reps and Senators? Skagit’s Deputy County Administrator coordinates all contacts from Lobbyists and from other jurisdictions in the county looking for 3C’s support of bills. In the fall she coordinates the leg planning process with Gordon Thomas Honeywell GA, helps develop our “One-Pager” of leg priorities and organizes the Leg Send-off in December. Skagit is represented by 3 LD’s – 10th, 40th, and 39th. We will sometimes divide and conquer if all 9 delegation members need to be contacted. Sometimes, GTH-GA does the outreach for us and often I’m the one attending LSC in Olympia so I will provide outreach on short lead items.
2. Do you divide bill tracking and lobbying responsibilities? If so, how? GTH-GA provides bill tracker updates over the weekend and 30 min Zoom briefings on Mondays. In addition, 3C’s meet on Thursday afternoon in public session where we have the opportunity to identify opportunities to testify over the weekend or into the following week. That’s where we often look at subject matter and decide which Commish is best suited to testify and who has calendar availability. This session we’ve had to rearrange our business meeting to accommodate schedule for testifying.
3. How do you communicate changes in bills of interest and make sure consensus for support still exists between regularly scheduled Council meetings? We discuss twice a week – Mondays and Thursdays. If there is something that falls in between, our deputy county administrator will circle with 3C’s to determine level of support.
Kitsap (Rob Gelder):
1. Do you use a point person to interact with your LD Reps and Senators? Not specifically, although to some extent I’ve been serving as a point person. We have three LDs in our county, that somewhat coincide with commissioner district. We have historically divided up contact along that line. That said, we have a lobbyist on contract that does some direct communications in Olympia. Since you’re in just one LD, a point person might be helpful – or assign each councilmember to a specific legislator within whom you have a stronger relationship??
2. Do you divide bill tracking and lobbying responsibilities? If so, how? Our deputy county administrator takes the lead along with our lobbyist. We maintain a list of bills we support, oppose, etc. and we share those with our legislators.
3. How do you communicate changes in bills of interest and make sure consensus for support still exists between regularly scheduled Council meetings? We keep a running list, but discuss each Monday during a board briefing time with lobbyist and staff. Allows us time to bring in other bills of interest from LSC, etc.
Whatcom (Kaylee Galloway):
1. Do you use a point person to interact with your LD Reps and Senators? I have taken lead on our Council partly because of interest and experience, but mostly since they appointed me rep to WSAC. Most of our advocacy historically has been managed by our Executive’s office. I believe our Deputy Executive has been the staff contact, but with our new special projects manager she may be taking more of a lead. We also have our contract lobbyist that we share with City of Bellingham and Port of Bellingham. I think there are pros and cons to a shared lobbyist.
2. Do you divide bill tracking and lobbying responsibilities? If so, how? Our lobbyist sends a weekly legislative report that includes a bill tracker. These are organized similar to WSAC by priority and by stance. I just got a regular meeting on the books with our Exec’s team so that we can work through some of the bills and develop some strategy. There are a couple bills I am passionate about, and with historic support from council via resolution and letter(s), I have given testimony. We normally also have a lobby day, but I am not sure what is happening this year.
3. How do you communicate changes in bills of interest and make sure consensus for support still exists between regularly scheduled Council meetings? I communicate with my council via email (with FYI do not reply message to avoid OPMA violation) or during council meetings during councilmember reports. I also notify our executive team and lobbyist if I am being active on something. The Executive and his office have advantage as they can without restriction or need for consensus engage with legislation. I have been working with them to improve communication, coordination and collaboration between them and Council.
Snohomish (Megan Dunn)
1. Do you use a point person to interact with your LD Reps and Senators? Paid lobbyist. Elected County Executive is the contact for the lobbyist. Each member keeps the lobbyist informed if they are pushing a bill.
2. Do you divide bill tracking and lobbying responsibilities? If so, how? The lobbyist tracks bills. The five-member Council goes over the LSC list every week and determines legislative priorities. The lobbyist helps strategize about who testifies. If Council testimony is called for, then the Chair testifies unless the personal dynamics of a particular member are more helpful. If a member desires to testify on their own hitch it is okay to do so providing a clear disclaimer is made that you speak only for yourself because they have a Council strongly divided along partisan lines
3. How do you communicate changes in bills of interest and make sure consensus for support still exists between regularly scheduled Council meetings? The Departments keep a tracking list of bills and recommended County positions. This is important since the Council Members try to respect Department expertise and also try not to oppose each other on State Leg matters whenever possible. Skagit’s Deputy County Administrator coordinates all contacts from Lobbyists and from other jurisdictions in the county looking for 3C’s support of bills. In the fall she coordinates the leg planning process with Gordon Thomas Honeywell GA, helps develop our “One-Pager” of leg priorities and organizes the Leg Send-off in December. Skagit is represented by 3 LD’s – 10th, 40th, and 39th. We will sometimes divide and conquer if all 9 delegation members need to be contacted. Sometimes, GTH-GA does the outreach for us and often I’m the one attending LSC in Olympia so I will provide outreach on short lead items.